suzuki GS500F, Best Beginner Motorcycle
Suzuki is globally famous for its motorcycles, its motorcycles are well engineered and well put to gather. Globally it has one of the best beginner sports motorcycle the GS500E & F series. Lets find out what makes Suzuki GS500F a best beginner motorcycle.
Suzuki GS500E/F Origin:
Suzuki has a history with air cooled motorcycles, their most motorcycles have been air cooled but it does not mean they’re up to no good. The Suzuki GS500E is the naked sports one which has an air cooled engine in an aluminum frame with classic 80’s styling. The GS series has been in production since 1988 till 2008. The Suzuki GS500F was designed later to update the classic design and Suzuki has really done a good job on a budget.
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GS500F Development Phase:
The Suzuki GS500E was an old school motorcycle in look and feel. Suzuki really wanted to update that so they went back to the drawing board. Since it had no other mechanical issues, Suzuki used the basic GS500E and improved it. What Suzuki did was rather simple, They asked designers to design a fairing inspired by Suzuki GSXR series. The fairing was adjusted to GS500 and the GS500F was born! But putting fairing on air cooled machine resulted in heat up and knocking issues. Later Suzuki added an external oil cooler which solved this issue completely.
suzuki GS500F Sales:
Even though the GS500F is a better looking and a better performing machine , It was not the most popular 500. There were many reasons for that but GS500E had a bigger fan following because of its simplicity and ease of maintenance. Also many law enforcement agencies had used GS500E which made it more popular and had a great availability of spare parts. The GS500F never got the fame it deserved and later Suzuki discontinued it due to low sales and moved to continue the GSXR series.
Verdict:
Only once in my motorcycle journalism career I have came across a Suzuki GS500F, which was also converted to GS500E by removing its fairing. Sometimes a motorcycle gets bigger than the company and over shadows other. This is what happened here!
